The second day of our Kruger National Park drive started as the previous one: early morning arriving at the gate with the sun barely breaching the horizon. It was again looking like a beautiful day, one full of driving and seeing the most beautiful animals.

In fact, we would have a day full of different and unique adventures that will turn again into their own stories. Some of them funny, some of them nerve-wracking, some of them making one made, and some of them just sad.

So please join me as we drive through the Kruger for a second day!

A Strange Dynamic: Wild vs. Cultivated

As you drive at the most southern end of the Kruger, you are met with a really rigid line, one side of the river being cultivated land (sugar cane, corn...) and the other the Kruger where these animals live their lives.

And to me this line was a source of sadness, not of wonder. For in that dividing line, we see destruction of habitat, killing of so many animals, and the corporate world shrinking every other type of world. But this is not a post on this sad fact, it was just something that stuck with me, this line of mono-culture crops and then wild nature in its diversity.

The first sightings: Everything and Some Lions!

As we drove through the Kruger that morning, we continually stopped for what we saw. our first real sighting, which I will share in a different post, was a big eagle on the ground, but then some idiot driver tried to drive past us, almost hitting the eagle...

But throughout the drive, we saw some of the most rare animals: wild dogs. But we also again saw some lions, these ones looking a bit healthier than the previous ones.

Where there is a vulture, there is meat. Or something like that. As we kept on driving, we saw many wild (wart)hogs, buffalo, and different bucks/deers/antelopes. It turned out to be a very productive day, with many photographs and my camera almost continually going off!

And then, the car stopped, we all looked, many other cars were looking. And then, the lion head peaks through a small gap. This marked the first lion sighting even before we stopped at our destination for the day.

For a while after this excitement, it was back to just "normal" sightings. Even though every sighting is by far not normal, we were trapped with lion fever: we wanted to see more of them. So, as we drove, we were on the lookout, always seeking.

A Wrong Turn Leading to Something Special

Our original plan was interrupted by a very urgent need for a bathroom. The Kruger is not a place where you can just go in the bushes, for as you might quickly just want to relieve yourself, a lion might launch out of the grass. Highly unlikely, but not zero chance.

So, we looked for the closest detour, which became our destination: Berg-en-Dal. As we took the turn, driving ever faster to get to the bathroom, we drove right into a pack of lions that walked in our direction. Behind them where a throng of cars, all seeking what we were now looking at: the lions head on. Who would have guessed that our need for a bathroom would have brought us into contact with these beautiful animals?

Even though we still desperately needed the bathroom, we for the moment tried to keep everything in so that we could see the lions and what they were doing... (Expect another photography post about this story soon.)

Arriving at our Destination: Berg-en-Dal

We arrived just in time. My fiance's father gave us the car, because he dropped himself at the bathroom.

But as we parked the car, we luckily saw the front registration plate was falling off. In South Africa, you need both a front and back plate, and if you are caught without one, you can get a big fine, even if you tell the traffic police it broke off. Sometimes, they do not have sympathy.

Either way, we got the number plate back on, and even though this was not our first intended stop, we made it the destination for the day. We saw and smelt the delicious food being cooked, so we needed to stop.

My fiance always buys her "slush" and I bought some delicious "pap en kaaings" or corn porridge with rendered fat pieces. It was delicious, something you can only find here, and I am so sad that I did not take a photograph of it...

Either way, while we had our lunch, we again saw so many beautiful animals that sought safety at the river.

Driving Again With Full Stomachs

As we then drove off, we contemplated the beauty of it all: the massive structures, the elephants, the small ants keeping the ground fertile. Everything seemed to have its own order, balanced, beyond our human understanding.

Nature and humans interacted continually. On the left above you can see monkeys adapting to us humans living amidst them. On the right above, you can see a baboon, who will not be this friendly with us...

And then, Another Sighting...

We stopped again, looking at what others were looking at. And then we saw it... the most scarce animal in the Kruger, or at least one of them...

And just around the corner, we saw some of their friends... I guess these dogs had something for lunch and the vulture friends smelled it, wanting a bite themselves...

As we drove on, we also stumbled upon a bunch of vultures in the distance. Maybe they caught something? I am not sure. But they sure did flock around something, and we joked a bit: Maybe it was the annual meeting of vultures.

The Allure and Destruction of Water

As we drove, almost heading out, we had to take a detour: the main road was closed. It was not closed in the usual sense, but the road was missing. See below the massive "tear" in the road:

We had to find another road. But as we searched, we saw the massive pipes that when under the road, twisted and bent, to the will of the water. It was something to witness, to see just how many kilometers away the water swept these big structures.

But the water also has its "beautiful" side. As we thought about these pipes, the destruction of water, we also saw the beauty of it, the life giving forces it held:

The Road Ends Here

And so, our journey was coming to an end. As every journey with a start, we needed to have an end as well. The beautiful African sunset greeted us on the horizon, and we started to feel the days' end weighing on us.

We were leaving with beautiful sightings, interesting stories, and our minds teeming with activity. We were better off than when we started, with so much in our minds captured, but also on photograph.

I hope that you enjoyed this virtual journey with me, as I took you through our second and last day in the Kruger.

For now, happy traveling, and keep well.

All of the musings and writings are my own, albeit inspired by all that we saw. The photographs are my own, taken with my Nikon D300.